drop dead ; phan

xiv

each sharp inhale of breath and every pattering step phil took seemed to ring in his ears as he skulked through the busy streets. every few seconds he felt a raindrop fall on him; he sighed as the rain would probably drench the streets that he would have to sleep on later. he pulled out his newly-cracked sunglasses and put them on, groaning at the giant, blurry line in his vision. he had cracked them a week before, on the day that he was kicked out. it wasn't entirely surprising though, as he knew how strongly his parents felt about their homophobic opinions. he honestly had simply had enough, and, more or less, just blurted it out on accident. this quickly escalated to a glass bottle being thrown at him and blue and black bruises covering his arms and stomach.

he sighed, trying to ignore the blurry vision and the rumbling in his stomach. he hadn't ate in a week, as he regretfully had no money. his parents weren't too good with money in the first place, and phil was only 15. he felt so desperate for food he hardly cared what it was. his head shot up as he had an idea. he was never a "bad kid" or stole anything, but he knew he needed food. he scanned the area, smirking once he saw a gas station. he figured it would be easy enough.

with his hood over his snapback, he tried to keep his gaze low to avoid being seen from security cameras. he sent a small wave to the worker and walked to one of the aisles, wondering what to get. he gulped and grabbed a snack sized bag of pretzels, making a mental note to plan out what he was going to get next time instead of simply grabbing pretzels. a water sat in a cooler just a few steps away, and he realized how dry his throat was. with a bag of pretzels and a water under his jacket, he tried to slip out of the store before-"hey!" the worker shouted, eyeing him suspiciously. he opened up his mouth to speak but was cut off by another voice. phil jumped, not realizing there was anyone else in the store. but there before him, a ragged brunette boy was striding up to him, resting his arm on his bony shoulder.

"why didn't you get the crackers, babe?" he asked, gesturing to his empty hands. it took phil a moment to get over his initial shock, but quickly responded with, "they don't sell them here." the boy sighed deeply, "whatever. we'll get them elsewhere," he said, dragging him out of the store. the water bottle fell out of his jacket once they were far enough away and phil stumbled around awkwardly to pick it up. once the water was back in his hands, he took no hesitation to rip into the bag of pretzels and start to devour them, nearly forgetting the boy was still there.

"a thank you would be nice," he scoffed, crossing his arms and leaning against the building. "shanks," he mumbled through a handful of pretzels. raising an eyebrow at the snack sized bag of pretzels and the water, the boy said, "is that all you got?"

phil nodded sheepishly, knowing it was pathetic. snack sized pretzels. the boy sighed, running a hand through his hair. "you hungry?" he asked, cocking his head to the side. phil hesitantly nodded, tossing the pretzels wrapper in a nearby bin. "i was about to go eat, you want to tag along?" he asked, his lips pursed in a tight line, as if not sure if he really wanted some random, amateur thief of pretzels to follow him around.

"s-sure," the ebony boy stammered, taking a minute to take in the boy in front of him. he certainly appeared older than him, though it could just be his muscle mass and cynical, "loner" attitude. "what's your name? i'm phil," he added quickly, walking in step with him. the boy took a moment to answer, making phil nervously keep his gaze on the dirty cement. he reminded himself that that dirty cement would be what he would be sleeping on later, and grimaced. after a minute phil decided to wonder if the boy was even going to answer, or if he hadn't heard him.

"i'm chris."

* * *

"good morning," dan muttered, yawning as he propped himself up on his elbows. phil yawned, nodding in response. "mhm," he hummed, burying his face in a pillow.